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Meaning & use

death

noun·Everyday

Last updated

UK/deθ/
US/deθ/

Meanings

  1. nouncountable or uncountable

    The end of life, when a person, animal or plant stops living.

    Grammar: Uncountable for the idea (life and death) and countable for cases: three deaths.

    Patterns

    • the death of someone
    • death from something

    The death of his grandfather left the whole family grieving.

    Heart disease is a leading cause of death.

    There were two deaths on the mountain last winter.

  2. nounsingularfigurative

    The end or destruction of something that has existed for a long time.

    Grammar: Used with the and of: the death of print newspapers.

    Patterns

    • the death of something

    Critics predicted the death of the high street.

    The scandal meant the death of his political career.

  3. noununcountable

    The state of being dead.

    Grammar: Often after in or after: life after death.

    Patterns

    • in death
    • after death

    Many people wonder what happens after death.

    They were close in life and remained together in death.

Word forms

pluraldeaths

Common combinations

cause of death
The report gave the cause of death as heart failure.
sudden death
Her sudden death shocked the village.
death toll
The death toll from the storm has risen to twelve.
death certificate
The clerk issued a death certificate.
scared to death
The thunder scared the puppy to death.

Synonyms and how they differ

passing
Passing is a gentle, polite way to speak of a death, mostly used in conversation and obituaries.
demise
Demise is formal and also used for the end of an organization or idea.
fatality
Fatality is used in reports and statistics for a death caused by an accident or violence.
decease
Decease is a formal legal word and rare in everyday speech.

Opposites

lifebirth

Word family

dead adjective
no longer alive
deadly adjective
likely to cause death
die verb
to stop living
deathly adjective
like death, as in a deathly silence
deathless adjective
living forever, often in a literary sense

Commonly confused: death or dead? death or dying?

death vs dead

Dead is the adjective and state of not being alive, while death is the noun naming the event or condition.

death vs dying

Dying describes the process before death, but death names the moment or state itself.

Practice

The neighbors sent flowers after the ___ of her father.

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